


Before the Thunder

by lionessvalenti



Category: White Collar
Genre: Community: WCPairings, Love/Hate, Multi, Reverse Chronology, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-09
Updated: 2011-07-09
Packaged: 2017-10-21 05:06:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/221250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lionessvalenti/pseuds/lionessvalenti
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>The truth is, they love each other. But hate is the only way they know how to show it.</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	Before the Thunder

**Author's Note:**

  * For [misura](https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/gifts).



> Written for the WCPairings fic swap. Beta read by Elrhiarhodan.

5.  
Kate stands on the courthouse steps, the cold autumn wind whipping the hair across her face, as she stares straight ahead. The people all around her, on the sidewalk and in their cars, hailing cabs, and living their lives, they blur together in a flurry of activity. Her eyes only focus as a figure nears her.

"What's the word?" Matthew asks.

"Four years," she says in a whisper. She clears her throat and tries again, in case he couldn't hear her. "He got four years."

"Then it's a good thing they only pinned the bond forgery on him."

She scowls at him and shoves her hands in her coat pockets. She can feel a half-empty pack of cigarettes and her lighter in one silk-lined pocket, and the three years sober AA chip that Neal had given her in the other. It wasn't his, but his mother's, and he had carried it around with him until he gave it to her.

Three years sober before she started drinking again and the chip became nothing more than a piece of plastic. Kate wonders if she's going to become like the chip, meaningless after these last three years.

"Let's go home," Matthew says.

Kate shakes her head and steps away from him. "I can't."

His eyes widen. "What do you want to do?"

"I don't know, but I know I can't be with you without him. I need both of you. Together you're perfect. One without the other it -- it doesn't work."

"We can wait," he says.

"I can't." She starts down the cold, cement steps, leaving him behind.

"That's really fucking selfish, you know that?" Matthew calls after her.

Kate glances over her shoulder and replies, "We're thieves, Matthew. We're supposed to be selfish."

 

4.  
It's after two AM when the electricity goes out in the small, abandoned shack in the middle of god-only-knows-where, Scotland. It's the perfect safe house after the heist, but it's old and it sways in the wind as the storm rages on outside.

Kate thinks it's thunder that wakes her up, but when she looks around in the pitch black, and lightning flashes, she sees Matthew standing in the doorway of the bedroom.

He had been asleep on the couch after the fight with Neal. She had invited him to join them (after all, fights between them were common), but he declined, not meeting her eyes, but glaring behind her at Neal. Sometimes, she could bring them down when they fought, but this one had been worse than usual, a screaming match until they were both hoarse, with Matthew shoving Neal across the room.

So, she kissed his forehead and went to bed with Neal.

"Matthew?" she asks. "Are you cold?"

He doesn't move or say a word, but next to her, Neal shifts and sits up.

"He's afraid of the storm," Neal says. It isn't a question, it's a statement. A fact.

Lightning strikes, filling the room with momentary light, and the thunder follows on its heels. The storm is right on top of them, ready to swallow them whole.

Kate wants to ask Matthew if that's true, but if it is, he'd deny it. He would never admit to anything that made him look weak. Knowing that, she extends her hand to him. "Come on," she says. "Get in."

"Kate," Neal mumbles in protest, but she shoots him a glare he can't see in the dark until the lightning flashes again.

"Be nice," she hisses, as Matthew stumbles across the room and crawls between them.

Neal grumbles and makes a big show of turning onto his other side, while Kate curls up against Matthew's body. He _is_ cold, the thin afghan from the sofa not nearly enough to keep him warm. She rubs her hand against his chest and in the light of another strike, she can see the fear on his face. She presses her mouth to his ear.

"We'll keep you safe," she says. Louder, she adds, "We're a family."

On the other side of the bed, Neal harrumphs, and Kate smiles. The acknowledgment of her statement is almost an agreement. She rests her head on Matthew's shoulder and holds him.

"I hate storms," Matthew whispers, a secret to Kate. She doesn't understand it, because she's always loved storms, but she doesn't know his history. She doesn't know what happened to him. It may be the first thing he's ever really shared with her.

 

3.  
Mozzie asks her why she puts up with both Neal and Matthew. "They're like children, looking for the next excuse to pick on the other one," he says, wine sloshing around in the glass in time with his exaggerated, tipsy hand motions. "Just choose one. Put the other out of his misery."

"It's not that simple," Kate replies. Across the room, Neal and Matthew are silently battling on the chess board. They're beautiful like this. Focused. Predatory. Waiting for the other to slip up, but neither of them will. They can play the same game for hours. "It's not up to me to choose. It's not me with both of them, it's us. The three of us, we're in this together."

"They hate each other," Mozzie says, because it's obvious.

"No, they don't," she says, because no one else can quite understand it.

The truth is, they love each other. But hate is the only way they know how to show it.

 

2.  
Kate groans as Matthew pushes deep into her ass. She raises her head and looks up at Neal, licking her lips, as he gazes down at her. His eyes are full of -- she doesn't know what. He's aroused, yes, his hard cock evidence of that, but maybe he's amazed that she wants this. Or maybe he's hurt that she wants to share it.

She sits up halfway, leaning back against Matthew as she balances herself by grabbing onto Neal's hips. She nuzzles her face against his cock, before pressing a kiss to the tip of it.

Neal reaches down and runs his fingers through her hair. Behind her, Matthew starts to pick up a steady rhythm.

Kate opens her mouth, and Neal can't hold back. He pushes in, his cock hot against her tongue.

She loves them like this, both of them having her. She wants them every way she can have them, but they have so many _rules_ with each other.

Matthew, swearing he's not gay, refuses to let Neal fuck him and he won't get down on his knees for Neal, either. Kate doesn't believe him, not when he's held Neal down, kissing him hard like he could own him, steal him, just through brute force. Not when Neal comes out of the bathroom, naked, with water still clinging to his skin, and Matthew stares him down with such searing intensity. No, he's not gay at all. And he's definitely not attracted to Neal.

Kate thinks it's kind of cute.

Neal doesn't let Matthew fuck him either, but that's out of pride. However, Neal can't resist a gorgeous uncut cock, and sometimes, he pushes Matthew onto the bed and sucks him, fast and dirty, swallowing his pride like he swallows the come. After that, they don't look at each other. Matthew won't even mock him for it.

Spilling into Kate's mouth, Neal grabs onto her hair and pulls. He gasps, and she clings to him, trying to keep his cock in her mouth for as long as possible, loving the way it feels, but he pulls back just a step. She leans against him, no longer able to stay quiet.

"Oh god -- oh, oh, oh!" She wraps her arms around Neal, squeezing him tight as she comes, her mouth open in a silent scream. She sucks in a breath and twists halfway around and still resting her weight on Neal, looks at Matthew. He's about to join them, and she can practically count off the seconds -- four, three, two...

Matthew pulls out and with one hard stroke of his hand to his dick, he comes, shooting his load across her back in shiny, white streaks.

He shifts forward and presses his mouth to hers. She grabs him around the back of the head with one hand, the other still clinging to Neal, and holds him there. She knows he can taste Neal on her tongue, because she can still taste him there.

"Aw, Katie," Matthew murmurs, and kisses her shoulder.

She runs a hair through his hair. "That's it," she says, and slides down Neal's body to rest on the floor, warmed by the oriental rug. She turns onto her side, giving her knees a break, and Matthew splays on top of her, his head resting on the side of her breast.

"Neal," Kate says, holding a hand up to him. "Come here, baby."

Standing over them for a moment, Neal nods and first gets on his knees, and then curls up around Kate. He hesitates, and then slings his arm over both her and Matthew.

"I love you," she says to both of them, and it's perfect.

 

1.  
Kate stares at the night sky, but there aren't any stars, because the stars don't shine over Manhattan. A warm breeze brushes her cheek and she feels Neal take her hand.

"I can be different," he says, not looking at her, "if that's what you want, what you need, I can do it."

"Neal," she replies, letting go of his hand so she can wrap her arms around him, "that's not what I want. I want you, just the way you are." He's perfect, but she'd never tell him that. He's beautiful, and she says it all the time.

"Then why Keller?" Neal asks. This time he pulls away so he can look her in the eye. "What am I missing?"

"Nothing," Kate says, reaching up to touch his face. It's late, and there's a shade of stubble across his chin. "I don't want you any other way, and I don't want him any other way. You're everything he's not, and he's everything you're not, and you're both wonderful. I need you both."

"He's dangerous."

"No, he's not. Not to me or you."

"He's a murderer."

Kate's mouth twists in a way that she's not even sure if she's smiling or frowning. It's true, and she doesn't like to admit it, because it makes her feel like some prison pen pal groupie, in love with a murderer. "Then it's up to us to make him better, don't you think?"

Neal stares up at the sky, big and dark. "I don't want any part of it."

"Yeah, you do. You both do."

This time Neal doesn't reply because it's true.


End file.
